The Daily Stoic - An Empire Exhausted

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

In today's weekend episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan pulls an excerpt from Colin Elliott's latest book, POX ROMANA: THE PLAGUE THAT SHOOK THE ROMAN WORLD. Learn how the Antonine Plague exposed the crumbling foundations of a doomed empire. Arguing that the disease was both cause and effect of Rome’s fall, Elliott describes the plague’s “preexisting conditions” (Rome’s multiple economic, social, and environmental susceptibilities); recounts the history of the outbreak itself through the experiences of physician, victim, and political operator; and explores post pandemic crises.If you enjoyed this chapter from POX ROMANA, grab yourself a copy by clicking here.Be on the lookout for Ryan's interview with author Colin Elliott on February 14th or listen one week early by becoming a Wondery Plus subscriber.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Wherever you are on your well-being journey, Audible is there for you. Explore bestsellers, new releases, and exclusive originals. Listen now on Audible. original's Listen Now on Audible. Welcome to the weekend edition of The Daily Stoic. Each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, something to help you live up to those four Stoic virtues of courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. And then here on the weekend we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview Stoic philosophers. We explore at length how these Stoic ideas can be applied to our actual lives

and the challenging issues of our time. Here on the weekend when you have a little bit more space, when things have slowed down, be sure to take some time to think, to go for a walk, to sit with your journal, and most importantly, to prepare for what the week ahead may bring. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Sunday episode of The Daily Stoke Podcast. I've said this a lot of times, but I Daily Stoke Podcast. I've said this a lot of times, but I think it's true. I think it's important. One of the best ways to understand the present moment is to study the past. Because when we study the past, our guard is down.

We can see a bigger picture. We can see human beings doing human things instead of doing things that piss us off or make us afraid or threaten our identity or challenge our partisan ideas or beliefs about the world. During COVID, I raved about this book, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, who I've had on the podcast. A fascinating book. I read this great book. Actually, let me pull it up here because I recommended it recently. Polio, An American Story by David M. Ashinsky, which I believe won a National Book Award.

That was fascinating. And so I was very excited to see a book about the Antonine plague. Mark's really, as you'll hear about in an episode we have coming up and you'll hear in today's excerpt, you know, catches a bad break. He's not in power very long. And this starts to be signs of something coming from the far Eastern edges of the Roman Empire, probably brought back by his stepbrother and co-emperor Lucius Ferris. And that becomes the Antonine plague, which ravages Rome for at least a decade, potentially more. There's even still outbreaks of it during Commodus is Rain many years later. So this is the defining event moment of Marx's release is rain. It changes everything. Justice COVID changed everything.

Justice the Spanish flu changed everything. Of course, we tend to forget these pandemics or epidemics shortly after they happen, because they were so unpleasant. They were so divisive. They were so scary. We were so powerless over them. I really love this book. It just came out. It's called Pax Romana. If you've heard of the phrase Pax Romana, that's the age of Roman peace. Actually, Seneca coins this phrase, another Stoicism connection. But this book is called Pax Romano, right? The Roman plague. And it's called The Plague That Shook the Roman World. It's by Colin Elliott, a college professor at Indiana. And

he and his publisher were nice enough to bring us an excerpt of that book. This is chapter six from that book, An Empire Exhausted. And it's about not just the plague itself, but the darkest moments of that plague. And I think you're really going to like this book. I have an episode with Colin coming soon, which you should definitely listen to also. And I love bringing these excerpts on a nice Sunday morning. Listen and enjoy. Check out the book, Pox Romano, the play that shook the Roman world and get it anywhere books are sold. And I hope you enjoy this one. I remember very specifically I rented an Airbnb in Santa Barbara. I was driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I just sold my first book and I've been working on it and I just needed a break.

I needed to get away and I needed to have some quiet time to write. And that was one of the first Airbnb's I ever started with. And then when the book came out and did well, I bought my first house. I would rent that house out during South by Southwest and F1 and other events in Austin. Maybe you've been in a similar place. You've stayed in an Airbnb and you thought to yourself, this actually seems pretty doable.

Maybe my place could be an Airbnb. You could rent a spare bedroom. You could rent your whole place when you're away. Maybe you're planning a ski getaway this winter or you're planning on going somewhere warmer. While you're away, you could Airbnb your home and make some extra money towards the trip. Whether you use the extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home could be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca.host. Chapter 6 An Empire Exhausted

No one could have known that the economic challenges and social strife that multiplied under Marcus would cascade into crises that would permanently restructure Roman society. An era was ending. Mighty as Rome was, it lacked any man-made mechanism to arrest the evolution and transmission of pathogens. No emperor, pronouncement, or institution was powerful enough to alter the empire's changing ecological context. The Antonine plague was not behind all the Pax Romana's problems, but the pandemic gashed Rome's ideological veneer, exposing the underlying fragility of the Roman system. In the end, the real scandal was not the collapse of the Pax Romana,

but the fact that it survived so long. Roman soldiers pooled near the Danube in the autumn of AD 170. After enduring the loss of his co-emperor and brother the previous winter, Marcus alone relaunched his war against the Germanic tribes harassing Rome's northern provinces. Historian Peter Heather's account of Rome's centuries-long battle with European invaders commences with this moment for good reason. Indeed, unbeknownst to Roman military leaders, Northern tribes had been migrating toward Roman borders in untold numbers.

Rome's allies in the region, the Marco Mani and Victuali, among others, were under severe pressures and demanded admission into the Roman Empire for protection. Marcus answered their request with a declaration of war against them. The war morphed into a series of conflicts historians refer to as the Marco Manic Wars. This name underplays the full scope of the conflict, as more than a dozen different German tribes became involved. One Roman source named the struggle the War of Many Nations, as all the peoples from beyond

the Rhine and Danube conspired against Rome. But at least some Romans initially thought the campaign would become something of a cakewalk. Galen, for example, expected Marcus to return to Rome victorious after just one campaign season. The ferocity and desperation of the Germanic tribes, however, their own territory beset by invaders from still further north and east, pressed them up against Roman boundaries for the remainder of Marcus's life. The ensuing military quagmire so consumed the Emperor's attention that Marcus would not see Rome for a full

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Follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondry Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. Honestly, a million pounds and I still wouldn't introduce you to him. And that's for your sake. In the thick of this sea of soldiers, Roman and German alike, plague foamed and frothed. Several sources confirm the devastation among the Roman troops. The least reliable of these characterizes the years of the Marcomannic Wars as a time

when a grievous pestilence carried away thousands of civilians and soldiers. The more trustworthy Imperial Secretary Eutropius, writing in the middle of the 4th century AD, interrupts his summary of Marcus' Germanic War with these chilling words. There occurred so destructive a pestilence that it roamed and threw out Italy and the provinces. Captive a pestilence that it roam and throughout Italy and the provinces, most of the empire's inhabitants, and almost all the soldiers, sunk under the disease. Similarly flamboyant, the Christian author Jerome says that an outbreak in AD 172 slaughtered the Roman army almost to extinction.

These later authors relied on earlier accounts which have since been lost. And while their interjections are exaggerated and therefore suspect, there should be little doubt that the Roman army, beleaguered by barbarians, suffered concurrent terrors of war and pestilence during the early 170s. A wider crisis spread into social and economic systems across the empire. Supplies of metal, stone, and other goods were disrupted. Food shortages in several regions continued unabated.

Violence became endemic in parts of Egypt and Asia Minor. In this chaotic moment, one of Marcus's most capable generals turned renegade and openly proclaimed himself ruler of the empire. But he was not the only one to go rogue. Many rank and file soldiers also betrayed their allegiances and turned to pillaging and terrorizing their own countrymen. Rampant disease, unending war, the lack of money, the supply shortages, all these things destroyed morale and loyalty in soldier and citizen alike.

Gangs of ex-soldiers and runaway slaves proliferated in the countryside like parasites, devouring the waning resources of an exhausted empire. Eventually, the worst occurred, Marcus himself became sick. After generations of apparent glory, the Pax Romana crashed in one horrific decade. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and add free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort, journey

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